Dann Corbit wrote:
I'm not sure if there is a document, but there are some things you can do.Message I have a machine with 4 CPU's and 2 gigabytes of physical ram.I would like to get PostgreSQL to use as much memory as possible. I can't seem to get PostgreSQL to use more than 100 megabytes or so.How can I optimize the use of PostgreSQL to get the maximum throughput in a configuration like that?Are there any memory usage/tuning documents I can read?
First, size the shared memory pool. I've been told by Tom that too much is actually slower, but making it MUCH bigger than the default does help a lot.
shared_buffer=2048
(Maybe larger, experiment)
Sort memory, this is useful for large queries that do sorting, it is allocated as needed on a per process basis. If you run large queries that sort, this can speed you up instead of sorting to disk.
sort_mem=16384
OK, lastly, do not dispare if PostgreSQL seems not to be using as much memory as is in your system. Don't forget the OS disk cache is important too.